Review: Paddock Wood Melon Head

In Saskatchewan, many Roughriders fans cheer for the football team by wearing a cut-out watermelon on the top of their head. It's a weird tradition that has been getting popular every year. Paddock Wood paid tribute to this by making the Melon Head beer, which is a Golden ale with an ABV of 5.2%.

When I first heard about the Melon Head, I expected a watermelon flavoured beer, but I was told immediately that it is not that at all. That may be disappointing to some, but I'll live.

Appearance: Pours very very pale clear golden colour, as you see in lighter Canadian beers. A bit of foam, off white. It's slowly going down.

Aroma: To me, it smells like.. burnt plastic. I know I smelled that before, but where? Oh yeah, it reminds me of the aroma of Fort Garry's Stone Cold. I'm trying to not be as judgemental as I could be, but that's what it reminds me of. It also has a bit of a very grainy smell.. if you've ever cleaned out graineries like I have, you would know that smell quite well. Also a bit of a pear sweetness in it.

Taste: Pretty boring. My least favourite of the 4 Paddock Wood beers I've tried this week. It reminds me of your standard macro ale. It has a slight amount of hops in it, so it gives it a slight bitterness that are not usually found in beers like Labatt 50. Slightly sweet, but not much. Pretty uninspiring.

Overall thoughts: Pretty boring. The aroma is a bit offputting for me, but I did enjoy that the beer had a bit of a hopiness in it, which is usually absent in most golden ales out there. This is the last beer in the series.

I decided to choose Melon Head to end the series because today's the Grey Cup, the Roughriders aren't in it, but the Blue Bombers are! Go Bombers!

Cody Lobreau

Welcome to BeerCrank.ca! I'm a bit obsessed about craft beer, especially Canadian craft beer so I mainly review Canadian beer but I love to try beer from all over the world as well. My goal is to help influence the casual beer drinker to go out and expand their beer palate one way or another. Feel free to send some feedback!
MORE ABOUT ME →